…everyone has heard of the book in which the famous Cornaro recommends his meagre diet as a recipe for a long and happy—and virtuous—life. This is one of the most widely read books, and several thousand copies are still being printed in England every year. There is no doubt in my mind that few books (except of course the Bible) have wreaked as much havoc, and have shortened as many lives as this well-meaning curiosity has done. The reason: confusion of cause and effect. This conscientious Italian thought that his diet was the cause of his longevity: but the preconditions for a long life—an exceptionally slow metabolism and a minimal level of consumption—were in fact the cause of his meagre diet. He was not free to eat either a little or a lot, his frugality was not ‘freely willed’: he got sick when he ate more. But unless you are a carp, it is not only advisable but necessary to have decent meals. Scholars in this day and age with their rapid consumption of nervous energy, would be destroyed by a regimen like Cornaro’s. Crede experto.